US Politics Mega-thread - Page 1051

On May 14 2014 08:30 kwizach wrote:

The quote was not taken out of context at all. Your second sentence was there to support the first one. Do you have a source for it?

A federal judge has ruled that Idaho's ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, the Idaho Statesman and the Washington Blade report.

The ruling, handed down by U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy Dale on Tuesday, followed oral arguments on May 5.

Earlier Tuesday, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter (R) filed a preemptive motion asking for an immediate stay if Dale did rule against the gay marriage ban.

“In the event of an adverse order, Gov. Otter will timely and duly appeal it to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals,” the governor’s motion reads, according to the Spokesman-Review.

On May 14 2014 04:24 Danglars wrote:
Calling these things "public goods" is rather disingenuous. If you want cable TV, or satellite TV, or just want to get your entertainment from the Internet, you pay for these from private companies. Private companies sell to the public. In yesteryear, they raised the money for switches and infrastructure from private investors.

It's a false choice narrative. We have no choice but to assume that ComcastTWC & AT&TDirecTV would be monopolistic. We have no choice but to assume that a department funded by the taxpayer accountable to their bureaucratic higher-ups and later to politicians would be efficient in this case. It really is beyond belief. Antitrust laws ignored, examples of agency waste and abuse ignored, even the basic case of the market encouraging industry innovation ignored. The accountability issue is still cloaked in the political games. Elect me and I'll vote to make 50 more channels be included in basic for this price! Who's responsible for repairing this line or service in your area? You don't know, but you sure can ask your representative next November to bring reform to the agency. It also doesn't get more uncompetitive than asking corporations who are responsible for profits and to shareholders to compete with an entity well accustomed to cost overruns and deficit spending. It is for these reasons that handing telecoms to government control is a bad idea.

Emergent monopolists still face competition from new competitors, in fields where barriers (particularly government barriers) don't restrict them. The very aspects that might make a monopoly harmful for the consumer give competition an selling edge. It's not a new argument, but it exists side by side with the current atmosphere of antitrust laws. I haven't heard you deem them insufficient, but if you still fear monopolies maybe that's your schtick.

My examples are open to interpretation of course. If you support big government and favor heavy redistribution of income, the examples of government overreach and control and lack of accountability are minimized in your eyes. IRS is just some wackos in one or two offices, the BLM's paramilitary-style swat teams were always still accountable and justified since the man was a loony.

Their relative insulation from reform is exactly why I take issue when you say "a public utility accountable to the people." What accountability? You argue for reform but any politician with a real desire to reform faces a powerful special interest preserving the size of the department and the job integrity of its employees in public sector unions and department spokespeople. They demonize the reformer and argue that their funding is insufficient or that reforms are already underway and will complete in the next 5 years. The failings of the public education system have repeatedly been blamed on underfunding since the 60s, and any politician stupid enough to claim an extra million dollars would fix it sees that number more than surpassed and the same metrics stale or dropping. The insulation of responsibility and accountability is precisely the evident results of handing industries to government.

I'm very glad some governments in Europe can run efficient industries, and I myself have been surprised how well places like Denmark and Sweden have done in satisfaction of government services and meeting funding targets (not always but in my own past research). Societies are different and I wouldn't advocate the import of the people running them any more than I would suggest swapping their populations. When it works, they deserve credit. I don't fully know the regulatory atmosphere that private companies were competing in prior to public takeover, so I can't fully comment on your cited case.

On May 14 2014 08:42 Jormundr wrote:

Found it on the nutwebs:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3075415/posts
It's an instance of the lesser educated members of the population taking garbage news hyperbole seriously.
The speculation itself probably isn't false. The oceans are our main carbon sink. If the oceans had never done this, then yes surface temperatures would be a lot closer to venus. This is useless information.
The question we must ask is is if and when we will exceed the ocean's capacity to sequester carbon, because at that point we will be pretty much fucked.

On May 14 2014 08:42 Jormundr wrote:

Found it on the nutwebs:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3075415/posts
It's an instance of the lesser educated members of the population taking garbage news hyperbole seriously.
The speculation itself probably isn't false. The oceans are our main carbon sink. If the oceans had never done this, then yes surface temperatures would be a lot closer to venus. This is useless information.
The question we must ask is is if and when we will exceed the ocean's capacity to sequester carbon, because at that point we will be pretty much fucked.

On May 14 2014 09:31 IgnE wrote:


Most people don't have any choice but to pay the one telecommunications provider in their area for access to internet/cable. How does that make them more accountable to the people than elected officials? Are you saying that democracy is not all it's cracked up to be? That elections are bad for public policy?

On May 14 2014 12:02 JonnyBNoHo wrote:

IMO the laws and regulations surrounding those industries could use a revamp. Not to mention the rapidly devolving to shit patent system...

IMO the laws and regulations surrounding those industries could use a revamp. Not to mention the rapidly devolving to shit patent system...

I would say most of the recent Supreme Court cases dealing with patents are a minor step in the right direction and that the patent system has been fucked for a long time.

Kids under 18 can't buy cigarettes in the U.S., but they can legally work in tobacco fields when they're as young as 12.

One of those kids is Eddie Ramirez, 15, who works the fields in the summer.

"It just sticks to my hand," he says of the plant. "It's really sticky, you know, and really yellow." It's nearly impossible to wash off, he says.

A new report from Human Rights Watch says the practice of children farming tobacco is hazardous and should be stopped. The group interviewed more than 140 kids in 2012 and 2013, including Eddie, who work on tobacco farms in the South.

From the sparse mobile home he shares with his mother in Snow Hill, N.C., Eddie describes feeling lightheaded and queasy after a 12-hour day in the tobacco fields.

"In the mornings, tobacco is wet because of the dew and, like, the rows are narrow and the tobacco is really big. You just feel like you're suffocating or can't breathe really well," he says. "You just want to stop and not do it no more."

Eddie, who's in the eighth grade, is hired by contractors who provide labor to growers in the area. His family came here from Honduras when he was 7. By the time he was 12, Eddie says, he had started working in the fields alongside his mother to help make ends meet.

"We found that the overwhelming majority of kids we interviewed got sick while they were working in tobacco fields with nausea, headaches, dizziness, lightheadedness," says Human Rights Watch researcher Margaret Wurth. "And many of the symptoms they reported are consistent with acute nicotine poisoning, which happens when workers absorb nicotine through their skin."

No one tracks how many kids work on tobacco farms, so there's no way to know how common or widespread the practice is. But Human Rights Watch argues that it's too hazardous and should be illegal.

Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says the report points out a gaping hole in U.S. labor law.

700,000 jobs at risk if Highway Trust Fund falters

The Obama administration warned Tuesday that failure to avert a threatened bankruptcy of the federal Highway Trust Fund this summer could mean the delay of about 112,000 roadway projects and 5,600 transit projects – and cost the economy as many as 700,000 construction jobs in the next year.

The Department of Transportation has projected that the Highway Trust Fund, which finances more than $50 billion a year in major highway, bridge and transit projects, is running out of money and will dip below the critical level of $4 billion as early as July. The trust fund has been financed by receipts from an18.4 cents per gallon gas tax and a 24.4 cents per gallon diesel fuel tax. More recently, revenues have seriously lagged behind highway project expenditures and the government has had to shift money from other accounts to keep the fund solvent.

On May 15 2014 01:22 Rassy wrote:
Thats an interesting article,thx for the link.

Also, doesn't it sound stupid on its face to suggest that 90% of the USA population only produces 30% of the wealth? (And that's _after_ progressive taxation.) That's what they have: so that's what they produced. Right?

If 90% of the population died, GDP would drop by... 30%?

Nah probably not, but i wouldnt be suprised that if the top 10% died the gdp could drop with 70%...
wich in the end means the same for this line of argument..
The contradictions here can probably be explained by the sailing boat model.

if the bottom 90% died the gdp could drop 80 % easily, and if the upper 10% died the gdp could easily drop like 70% as well.
They are complementary,both are needed to get a maximum output.

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A federal magistrate judge has refused to put gay marriages on hold in Idaho pending an appeal from the state's governor.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Candy Dale wrote Wednesday morning that Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter's appeal isn't likely to succeed, and so there's no reason to keep same-sex couples from seeking marriage licenses or marrying on Friday.

On Tuesday, Dale struck down Idaho's same-sex marriage ban in response to a lawsuit from four Idaho couples.

Dale said Idaho's law unconstitutionally denies gay and lesbian couples their fundamental right to marry and wrongly stigmatizes their families. She said the state must start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples Friday morning.

Gay marriage is legal in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

Otter has vowed to appeal the ruling.

A report released Tuesday from an advisory group of retired U.S. military leadership echoes the findings of other recent reports on climate change: It is real, it is already happening and it poses major threats to the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The federally funded Center for Naval Analyses and its Military Advisory Board, a group of 16 retired three- and four-star generals and admirals, affirm in the report that climate events like flooding, prolonged drought and rising sea levels, and the subsequent population dislocation and food insecurity, will serve as "catalysts for instability and conflict" in vulnerable regions of the world.

"We no longer have the option to wait and see," former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta write in a foreword to the report, which they describe as a "bipartisan call to action."

The report laments the politicization of climate change and continued inaction from Congress on the issue. "Politically charged debate has silenced sound public discourse," it reads in part.

"We hope this report will both influence public opinion as well as influence national security policymakers and leaders," retired Navy rear admiral and co-author David Titley told The Huffington Post. "We are speaking out because we believe the risk is accelerating, and will continue to do so unless action is taken now."